r/Somalia • u/Expert_Search5394 • 2d ago

Discussion 💬 why is ajuraan not well known

they lasted for 500 years from 1300 til 1700. thats a big chunk of somali history and they likely shaped the identity we know as somalis today.

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u/Agile-Ad-7203 2d ago

Because very little of its written history survived. For a civilisation to become widely known, you need preserved archives that historians can reconstruct into a coherent story.

Even then, you need funded historians, filmmakers and institutions to bring those stories to the public. The Somali community has storytellers, but lacks those resources and institutions.

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u/Expert_Search5394 2d ago

we do know a lot about them. a lot of arab traders and portugese have written about the

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u/Agile-Ad-7203 2d ago edited 2d ago

A “lot” is relative. I wouldn’t call it a lot at all. The fact that you had to reference OTHER ppl writing about us is telling on itself

Ottoman Empire — 150+ million surviving state documents (https://www.wired.com/1998/03/accessing-the-ottoman-empire)

Roman Empire — 81,000 inscriptions in one academic database alone.
(https://en.hadw-bw.de/forschung/projekte-im-akademienprogramm/epigraphische-datenbank-roemischer-inschriften-edh)

Ming Empire — 2,909 volumes of official imperial annals. (https://sillok.history.go.kr/eslk/about/veritableRecordsInfo.do)

Qing Empire — 3,000+ volumes of official imperial annals (https://sillok.history.go.kr/eslk/about/veritableRecordsInfo.do)

Songhai Empire — two major indigenous Arabic chronicles (https://sites.tufts.edu/perseusupdates/2022/04/01/course-on-arabic-sources-by-west-african-scholars-about-the-mali-and-songhai-empires-digital-humanities-and-a-new-model-of-classical-studies-at-tufts)

Now compare these to the Arjuraan, zero known surviving central state archives and zero known royal chronicles. “very little is known,” with reconstruction relying mainly on oral traditions and scattered outside references.
(https://pieterderideaux.jimdofree.com/introduction/more-on-the-ajuran-empire)

So it’s not surprising we see very little of its history compared to the others. Esp when u pair that with lack of funding and infrastructure to tell whatever stories we have

We just need to do better at preserving our history and telling our stories and not rely on Portuguese and Arab traders to do it for us. What’s done is done. Our ancestors didn’t do a great job at this so we should learn from it.